Conditions looked pretty heavy which isn't the kind of clay Nadal thrives the most on, but he looked pretty good. It seemed to me was hesitant to lunge hard out to his forehand especially early in the match.

Nadull is playing better tennis in this 2nd set than he did during most of his career.

Nah, Rafa isn't actually very sharp today, leaking quite a lot cheap UEs that he usually wouldn't. Del Bonis just can't put him under any pressure. Looking at the draw, the only potentially interesting match Nadal could have here is vs Chardy. When 'on, Chardy's forehand is one of the biggest weapons in tennis, even if not at his best he would still test Rafa's movement and sharpness far more than anyone else in the draw.

I meant the way he was playing, more varied and more aggressive. I think he tried to shorten the points. Part of the UEs were due to that, the other part obviously was due to lack of competition. If his knees don't bother him much, we could be in for a couple of platinum years (banking on Tsonga being more competitive as well).

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Quote:

Originally Posted by YellowBullet

Quote:

Originally Posted by redshift36188

Peak Kei can beat a good Nole. The gap between their best is very small.